Sharon Tate’s sister reveals Charles Manson sent her coded drawing & letter before his death after her secret jail visit
SHARON Tate's sister received a strange letter from Charles Manson just a few years before his death - and decades after she secretly visited the abominable cult leader in jail to look him directly in the eyes.
Debra Tate, now 69, was just 16 when her older sister Sharon, a pregnant model and movie star nine years her senior, was savagely stabbed and strangled to death by members of the Manson family along with four others inside her Beverly Hills home.
Two days later, the cult struck again, this time with Manson himself and six other family members murdering supermarket owner Leno LaBianca and his wife Rosemary at their home in Los Feliz.
The depraved killings, which unfolded 53 years ago this week, brought a violent and dark end to the Swinging Sixties and remain today some of the most infamous murders ever committed in American history.
In an interview with The U.S. Sun, Debra recounted how she arranged a secret meeting with Manson at the Los Angeles County Jail shortly after he was arrested and accused of masterminding what would later become known as the "Helter Skelter" murders.
Insisting she was well versed in hippy culture, Debra said she didn't initially believe that Manson and his band of "homeless, dumpster-diving flower children" could be capable of committing such atrocious acts.
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So to ensure police had the right people in custody, the tenacious teen contacted some law enforcement friends of her father's - a decorated colonel in the US Army - and paid Manson a visit late one evening without her parents' knowledge.
"I didn't think it was possible that they had the right people to tell you the truth," said Debra.
"So I had to see for myself. I'm a very intuitive person, and I thought if I could look this man in the eyes for myself, then I'd definitely know whether he was responsible or not.
"It wasn't protocol," she added of arranging the clandestine meeting, "but I didn't know that, it didn't cross my mind - and quite frankly I didn't even care."
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Debra was led into a service elevator and taken to a dark room behind a heavy metal door where a shackled Manson lay in wait.
"They brought me in and he was already seated with chains around his ankles and hands," remembered Debra.
"I had two guards next to me, and we just sat there looking at each other for about 10 minutes.
"No words were spoken; all we did was stare into each other's eyes."
Debra sat waiting for Manson to say something but he never did. Instead, he just continued to stare back at her blankly.
"He obviously didn’t feel the need to perform [like he did in court and to TV cameras] because he knew I could see him for what he was, so he just stayed quiet," she said.
"I knew in that moment that he probably was responsible for Sharon's death.
"I could just see and feel the aura of evil around him."
CODED LETTER
Debra wouldn't have any further direct interactions with Manson for several decades until she wrote him a letter a few years before his death, quizzing him about other murders potentially carried out by the Manson family.
It has long been suspected that Manson and his band of depraved acolytes may have been responsible for many more murders than the nine they were convicted of.
Other Manson-linked cases include a supposed suicide of a Manson follower’s boyfriend in England; the drowning of an attorney whom Manson declared in the middle of his trial he "never" wanted to see again; and a man killed during a game of Russian roulette with family members present.
Additionally, the Manson family is suspected by some to have been involved in the stabbings of two young women off Mulholland Drive and a couple of young Scientology followers who met a similarly grisly end, among many other unsolved killings.
Manson himself has repeatedly claimed that there were more victims, even once bragging to his cellmate that he was responsible for 35 killings alone, though the identities of those apparent victims were never shared.
Susan Atkins, one of the Manson devotees who was involved in the murders, was also said to have bragged to her cellmate soon after she was arrested that there were "three people out in the desert that they done in," though no bodies ever materialized.
Additional rumors have swirled of hitchhikers who visited the Manson family ranch and were never seen again, and runaways who drifted into the camp and were killed after falling out of favor - but again no concrete evidence to support the claims has ever emerged.
In search of answers, Debra reached out to Manson while he was still behind bars at Central California's Corcoran State Prison, and, to her surprise, she says she received a response.
"Charles Manson's letter rattled on just like he did," Debra said of the rambling scrawl she claims to have received from the killer.
"He was writing about how he was an outlaw, and that he lives by outlaw rules, meaning he would never rat on any of his brothers and sisters, even though some of them had done it to him.
"But he drew me a little picture that was an exact replica of the Panamint Mountains, the mountain range surrounding Barker Ranch where Manson was hiding out after the murders and eventually captured," Debra said.
"There was also what at first glance looked like a sun coming up over the hills, but when you looked closer, it was actually a little image of Charlie, because he had a little 'X' on his forehead."
In the foreground of the hand-drawn sketch, were also little X-marks that Debra believes could be burial sites for other Manson family victims.
"I think that was his way of telling me something and answering my questions while remaining true to his own doctrine of living the outlaw life," she said.
MORE VICTIMS?
Digs have previously taken place at Manson's Barker ranch, following pressure from Debra and others, though no human remains have so far been found.
Debra led an effort to excavate patches of land surrounding Barker Ranch in 2008 after she, an off-duty police detective, and forensics experts found what they believed to be evidence of two, perhaps three, human graves linked to the Manson cult.
The potential burial sites were located using highly trained sniffer dogs and ground probing equipment and radar which was used to detect signs of refilled holes in the ground.
That May, the Inyo County Sheriff’s Department and the National Park Service authorized digs of only up to 3-4 feet at Barker Ranch, but nothing was found.
At the time, Debra and her team of sleuths suggested that officials simply hadn't dug deep enough.
A second unsuccessful excavation took place at the former Manson haunt in 2014, though Debra remains certain there are more victims of the cult buried out there somewhere.
'A CATASTROPHIC LOSS'
Fifty-three years on from Sharon's death, Debra says there is rarely a day that goes by that she doesn't think of her striking, doe-eyed older sister, who was almost nine months pregnant when she was stabbed to death on Aug. 8, 1969, aged just 26.
Growing up in a military family, and bouncing around from town to town through much of her childhood, Debra described Sharon as "her world", saying she was her mother, father, caretaker, and best friend all rolled into one.
"She was my advocate, she was my very strong supporter, she truly believed in me," Debra said.
"Sharon was just such a kind, gentle, genuine soul, that there wasn't a person that ever came across her that didn't like her.
"Her death was such a catastrophic loss," she added. "Not only to me but for the rest of us and the next generations.
"She was such a special soul that this world - or that world at the time - could’ve really have used.
"She’d have been a fabulous role model for everyone - men and women."
LAST MEETING
In the months preceding Sharon's death, Debra spent much of the summer living at the Cielo Drive home her sister shared with husband Roman Polanski while she was away shooting what would become her final movie in London.
She last saw Sharon on July 16, 1969, shortly after her return from Europe.
The Tate family descended on the burgeoning star's Beverly Hills mansion en masse, cradling trays of barbecue food as they settled in to watch the Moon landing on TV.
A heavenly pregnant Sharon kept teasing Debra about becoming an auntie, playfully nudging her with her elbow as she joked, "You're going to be the official diaper changer, aren't you, Auntie Deb?"
Debra remembered her sister spent much of the day gleefully dancing around and giggling.
She was nervous at the prospect of becoming a mother and all the drastic lifestyle changes that parenthood requires, Debra said, but it was a challenge she was "over the moon" to be attempting.
"Sharon and Roman were both just so excited to be parents," she said.
"Having that baby was going to complete her cycle of life. In other words, motherhood was going to take precedent over everything else that was going on, her modeling, her acting career - all of that.
"She certainly would’ve been a fantastic mother, but she was so cruelly robbed of that opportunity."
FINAL WORDS
Debra was due to stop by and see Sharon at Cielo Drive with some friends hours before she was murdered, but her sister canceled last minute.
The point of the visit was so that Debra could pick up a custom-made saddle that Sharon had bought for her in London which had just arrived in the mail.
But Debra was catching a ride with a group of her friends and Sharon, battling discomfort in the sweltering summer heat, asked if they could reschedule for another time.
"I said, 'gee, sis. I really want to come up but…[and explained the situation],'” recounted Debra.
"And she said, 'Oh, sugar. I’m so hot and miserable' - and it was hot and miserable - 'I just don’t feel like meeting new people, or putting on clothes and make-up and that sort of thing.'
"I told her I thought that would be her answer, so we can just do it another time.
"And that was it, that was the last time I spoke with her."
HELTER SKELTER MURDERS
At around 11.45pm on August 8, 1969, a group of loyal followers of Charles Manson broke into Tate's mansion as she was hosting a small gathering with friends.
Led by Charles "Tex" Watson, the group—which also included Susan Atkins, Linda Kasabian, and Patricia Krenwinkel—first cut the home's telephone lines before venturing onto the property.
They claimed their first victim along the driveway: Steven Parent, a friend of Tate's housekeeper, who happened to be driving by the Tate-Polanski home at the wrong time.
Watson stabbed Parent before shooting him several times with a 22-caliber revolver. The gunshots killed Parent, and Watson left him lying on the ground as the killers made their way towards the home.
They entered the property through a screen door and awoke Wojciech Frykowski, a close friend of Polanski's, who had been sleeping on the living room couch.
Watson immediately kicked Frykowski in the head. When he asked Watson who he was, the Manson minion is reported to have responded: "I'm the devil, and I'm here to do the devil's business."
He then instructed Atkins, Kasabian, and Krenwinkel to snuff out all remaining occupants of the house.
Sharon Tate was stabbed 16 times - at least five times fatally - and was left butchered on the living room floor with a rope tied around her neck.
Her unborn child, a baby boy, did not survive the gruesome attack.
Sharon's blood was used to scrawl the word "PIG" on the front door. "DEATH TO PIGS" was also written in blood on a wall inside the home.
Found nearby to Sharon was the lifeless corpse of Jay Sebring, a celebrity hairstylist and former lover of Tate's, who also had a rope tied around his neck and was stabbed to death.
Coffee heiress Abigail Folger and her boyfriend Wojciech Frykowski were found dead in the yard having both tried and failed to escape from the home in separate attempts.
Folger escaped from Patricia Krenwinkel and fled out of a bedroom door to the pool area where Krenwinkel tackled her and stabbed her multiple times.
Tex Watson joined in on the assault, and Folger was stabbed by her frenzied attackers a total of 28 times.
Similarly, Frykowski attempted to flee from Watson but the Manson acolyte caught up to him and shot him numerous times before stabbing him over and over again.
In addition to suffering a sickening 51 stab wounds and numerous gunshot wounds, Frykowski was struck in the head 13 times by the butt of Watson's gun.
Two days later, the Manson family would strike again, this time brutally dispatching of Leno La Bianca and his wife, Rosemary, in their Los Angeles home.
The brutal killings would later become collectively known as the "Helter Skelter" murders, getting its name from a song by The Beatles that Manson believed contained secret messages about an impending race war that would end civilization as we know it.
FIGHTING FOR JUSTICE
Today, Debra says she tries to remember the ways in which her sister lived rather than the tragic and violent circumstances in which she was killed.
"It was a daily chore to avoid try and avoid the horror on the front pages of the newspapers when Sharon was killed," Debra said, "But I wanted to remember the good - and now that’s all I remember.
"I remember her taking me out with her teenage friends way past bedtime because my mom trusted her, Sharon buying me my first horse ... or when she took me to the park and made me sit next to her on the bench while she talked to some young suitor.
"I remember all those things," added Debra. "I've pretty much tried to not have the horrific reality ever enter into my daily consciousness.
"In other words, I don't want it to rob me of all the fond memories I have with her."
Keeping her older sister's memory alive, Debra has dedicated the last several decades of her life to petitioning to keep the remaining members of the Manson cult behind bars through her website noparoleformansonfamily.com.
The 69-year-old also is an advocate for other families afflicted by trauma.
It was Debra's mom Doris who first started the effort. Doris emerged from years of depression when she heard that a Manson family member was seeking parole.
She gathered 350,000 signatures, helping keep the murderer in prison.
Doris also lobbied successfully to change state law to ensure the rights of victims’ family members to make statements during sentencing and parole hearings.
Doris Tate died in 1992. Her youngest daughter Patti followed after a battle with cancer in 2000 and now Debra, who is also battling the disease, attends the parole hearings alone.
"I'm going to keep fighting like hell to ensure these people remain behind bars," Debra said.
"My mom asked me to continue this work for her, so that's what I'm going to do."
Charles Manson died behind bars while serving a life sentence at Corcoran State Prison on November 19, 2017. He was 83 years old.
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"I cried when he died and prayed for his soul," said Debra of Manson.
"I told God that he was his problem now."